WARANGAL: What began as routine land registrations across Telangana quietly turned into a sprawling digital fraud, exposing how technical loopholes in government portals were exploited to siphon crores from the state exchequer.
In Warangal, police have uncovered a large-scale land registration fraud that operated across multiple districts, manipulating online fee receipts on the state’s land registration platforms. The case, which has led to 15 arrests so far, has drawn attention to vulnerabilities in the digitisation of land records and the expanding ecosystem of intermediaries operating around it.
According to investigators, the network exploited registration processes on the Dharani portal and its successor, the Bhu Bharathi platform, diverting government revenues while producing documents that appeared legitimate to officials and landowners alike.
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A Network Built Around Digital Loopholes
Addressing the media, Warangal Commissioner of Police Sunpreet Singh said the accused took advantage of technical gaps in the government’s land registration portals—first Dharani and later Bhu Bharathi—to siphon off registration fees.
Using a mobile application and technical expertise, the group allegedly altered digits on official online challans at the time of payment. The method was deceptively simple: pay a lower amount to the government while generating forged receipts that reflected higher payments. These manipulated receipts were then submitted during the registration process, allowing transactions to proceed without immediate detection.
Police said the fake challans were routed through intermediaries and submitted at Tahsildar offices to complete land registrations, embedding the fraud within routine administrative workflows.
The Scale of the Fraud and Its Financial Trail
Investigators have registered 22 cases in total—seven in Jangaon district and 15 in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district. Preliminary findings indicate that at least 1,080 land documents were manipulated, causing a loss of ₹3.90 crore to the state treasury.
During raids and arrests, police seized ₹63.19 lakh in cash, property documents valued at around ₹1 crore, one car, two laptops, five desktop computers and 17 mobile phones. Fifteen accused have been taken into custody, while nine others remain absconding.
Officials said further investigation is underway to identify additional beneficiaries and recover the remaining diverted funds.
Middlemen, Local Offices and Private Centres
Police identified Pasunari Basavaraju, Jella Pandu and Maheshwaram Ganesh, all residents of Yadadri district, as key conspirators. The trio allegedly operated with the assistance of staff from Mee-Seva centres and private online computer centres spread across Jangaon, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri and Nalgonda districts.
The gang is also believed to have appointed middlemen in Jangaon and Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri, offering commissions ranging from 10 to 30 per cent to facilitate agricultural land registrations using manipulated documents. These intermediaries acted as the link between landowners, service centres and the forged digital paperwork.
Investigation and Official Response
Senior police officials said the case highlights how the rapid digitisation of land records, while intended to reduce corruption and delays, has also created new avenues for technologically driven fraud.
Commissioner Sunpreet Singh commended the efforts of West Zone DCP Rajamahendra Naik, ASP Pandari Chetan, Jangaon Inspector Satyanarayana Reddy, Raghunathpally Circle Inspector Srinivas Reddy and other officers involved in cracking the case. Cash rewards have been announced for the teams for what officials described as exemplary investigative work.
